What was going on when I was born?

Exceptional Shanghai restaurant demonstrates liberalized rules A3 American tells of efforts to recruit him as spy A3 Ronald Biggs's kidnappers freed A4 Around the World A5 American Embassy in San Salva- dor is attacked again A6 Soviet leaders press U.S. on talks A10 In Jidda, a million cars for a mil- lion people A14 U.S. lifts Sahara peace conditions for arms sales to Morocco A15 Government/Politics 23 oilmen contributed $270,000 to help redecorate White House A19 Desegregation issue cause confu- sion in Los Angeles schools A20 Carey and Kock testify against Reagan budget cuts B1 Jersey Republican shuns public funds in race for Governor B2 New York Assembly passes bill on joint custody in divorces B8 Feminists attack Reagan plan to curb abortion aid B13 Energy Accord reached on building refuse-fueled power plant B3 General Around the Nation A16 Police Charge three whites in the death of a black man A16 Study says crowded prisons should cut populations sharply A17 Bodies sought by Florida police in Weeki Wachee junkyard A18 Eban in New York to discuss TV series on Jews B8 Defector who dealt in false visas cites U.S. Embassy in Mexico B16 Health/Science The space shuttle Columbia has its fuel tank tested A16 University report advises genetic tests for donors of sperm A19 The Home Section Home Interior decoration among friends C1 Moving In, in China: A puzzled isolation C1 Show house guidelines are issued by designers C5 Shopping for an expandable din- ing table C10 The Milan look: Luxurious ma- terials in simple shapes C1 Hers C2 Home Beat C3 Cartier's secrets of mystery clocks C3 Home Improvement C4 Design Notebook C6 Laotian needlework from Rhode Island C11 Gardening C12 Industry/Labor Three New York City doctors tell why they went on strike B3 Kirkland opposes lower minimum pay rate for teen-agers B15 Arts/Entertainment Arts figures warn Congress on proposed budget cuts C15 Cunningham dancers give "Chan- nels/Inserts" its premiere C16 Suit alleges John Samuels sold painting used as collateral C17 Few opera stars are emerging from Europe C17 Ruby Braff leads jazz sextet C18 Al Carmines's opera-play on T.S. Eliot is staged C20 Donald Newlove's "Those Drink- ing Days" is reviewed C21 "Irish Coffee," a chilling tale of alienation, is staged C23 Obituaries Dr. Edward Lasker, five times U.S. Open chess winner D23 Dr. Joseph C. Hinsey, headed New York-Cornell Medical Center D23 Sports Guidry of Yanks gets chance to meet on his contract D18 Floyd discounts streak despite torrid golf rounds D18 Vecsey on Bert Yancey's continu- ing troubles D18 Tulsa beats Syracuse in overtime,86-84,to win N.I.T. D19 An oil crisis weapon: mirrors At the edge of abortion law The message from the mines Letters A22 William Safire: a quick guide to the foreign policy clans A23 Anthony Lewis: "1984" and Rea- gan's Cabinet appointments A23 Les Daly: Private Inc. in the pub- lic pen A23 Rita E. Hauser: of human rights and policy A23

Judge Milton Pollack of Federal District Court in Manhattan last night granted a temporary restraining order that prevents the St. Joe Minerals Corporation from going ahead with a series of proposals intended to block a $2 billion takeover by Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. The judge expressed outrage at St. Joe's proposal, announced on Tuesday, to liquidate the company if all else failed to block the Seagram acquisition of the nation's No. 1 lead company. ''It is inconceivable,'' he said, ''that an alleged flourishing enterprise has authorized its board to subject the assets and charter of the company to a scorched earth policy, to be accomplished in the name of an exercise of business judgment.'' Ruling Blocks Liquidation Judge Pollack's order stopped St. Joe from going ahead with any attempt at liquidation. It also prevented it from carrying out a proposal to buy up to 18 million of its shares, for $60 a share in cash and preferred stock, a move that could cost more than $1 billion.

This is President Reagan's kind of town: robust, conservative and Republican, an upholder of Western individualism, full of stout supporters in resonant harmony with his thinking about Federal spending. Southwesterners have long preached and tried to live by a set of laissez-faire and do-it-yourself values straight off the frontier. Accordingly, the intervention of the Federal Government has traditionally been unwelcome and Federal aid has been considered unnecessary. It is no surprise, therefore, that official Tulsa, unlike the city halls of the Northeast, says it is ready and willing to live with the President's proposed budget cuts. But, in reality, the Federal stamp is firmly planted on this city, as it is on many others in the Southwest, including Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio. Modern Oklahoma and the West,

Governor Carey and Mayor Koch took their pleas against deep Federal budget cuts today to two Congressional hearings, where they were treated like the old friends that they are by some members of the House of Representratives who served with them. Governor Carey's testimony was the harsher of the two. He said that it was ''illusory'' to cut back the Export-Import Bank, since that actually created jobs in the United States, and that it was ''wacky'' to abolish legal services for the poor, since judges would then have to appoint defense lawyers who would have to be paid out of court funds. Mr. Carey was mostly ebullient and discursive, but his tone shifted to that of an impatient parent when questioned before the House Budget Committee by Representative Jack Kemp, the upstate New York Republican who is frequently mentioned as a potential opponent for Mr. Carey in next year's gubernatorial race.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged 19.09 points in a stunning late rally yesterday to finish at 1,015.22, its highest level in more than eight years. The stock market's most widely followed indicator thus established a foothold well above the 1,000 level, a barrier that has often proved formidable. The market, overcoming some early hesitation, moved broadly higher in active trading, with advancing issues outpacing declines by slightly more than a 2-to-1 ratio. Over all, turnover on the Big Board fell to 56.3 million shares from Tuesday's 66.4 million.

The House will not approve the Reagan tax plan involving a threeyear, across-the-board cut, but Congress will adopt a more limited bill, the House's chief tax writer, Representative Daniel Rostenkowski, predicted. The new bill, he said, would cover only one year and would be weighted toward lower-income taxpayers. The Administration disputed this view and said it would continue to press for passage of the original Kemp-Roth legislation. (Page A1.) The Senate voted to skip the April 1 rise in milk price supports, giving President Reagan his first budget victory. It also blocked an increase in retail milk prices of 8 cents a gallon. (A1.)

International The status of Alexander M. Haig Jr. created a stir. President Reagan reaffirmed that the Secretary of State was his ''primary adviser on foreign affairs,'' but Presidential aides said that the tension between Mr. Haig and the senior White House staff was much more severe than had been publicly acknowledged. A Presidential adviser said that Mr. Haig had threatened to resign eight or nine times before Vice President Bush won a key policy making post Tuesday. (Page A1, Column 6.) Opposition to policy in El Salvador is being expressed in hundreds of letters a week that are being received by key members of Congress. The letters oppose the Reagan Administration's decision to send military aid to the country and, according to legislators, the protests are beginning to influence Congressional opinion. (A7:1.)

In a political gesture to the French Government, the United States has ended the ban on the import of certain steel products from Creusot-Loire of France, Administration officials said today. The Carter Administration had imposed the ban in retaliation for the company's agreement to build a steel mill in the Soviet Union. The officials said that the Federal Register would disclose tomorrow that a formal agreement has been reached with the French Government to allow the resumption of imports from Creusot-Loire.

An interview with a drug dealer on the front page of a high school newspaper, disclosing the sale of drugs to elementary students in Millville, N.J., has sparked a press-law controversy. The principal of the Millville Senior High School and the faculty adviser to the student newspaper have been ordered to appear in Cumberland County Superior Court this morning to explain why they will not divulge the name of the student who interviewed the drug dealer. The question-and-answer interview with ''Candy Man'' appeared last week in the ''Tattler,'' the Millville Senior High School newspaper, with no byline. The drug dealer contended that he had been selling drugs, including ''pot, speed, 'ludes and black beauties,'' to high school students. He was also quoted as saying that he knew of fourth- , fifth- and sixth-graders who bought drugs.

An article in Metropolitan Report on March 17 incorrectly reported the extent of rate increases sought for buses operated by the New Jersey Transit Corporation.

Moving to Peking is a lot like moving into 1951, and a little like moving into 1851. It can be a humorous novelty that tends to wear thin with the first dust storm, or after the discovery that curling up with a shortwave radio to find out what's happening in the world is often the only nightlife in town. Of course, to most of the one billion residents of this country, the growing corps of foreign diplomats, business executives, journalists and scholars here live in splendid, pampered luxury. But by Western standards, foreigners must cope with conditions of isolation and deprivation that make even hardened third-world veterans yearn for early reassignment. Foreign residents live in hotels or else in three walled compounds guarded by People's Liberation Army soldiers, who are there to keep local Chinese friends out.

The United States and Japan find themselves caught up in a drama of stylized euphemisms, all designed to let the Reagan Administration maintain its public image of free trade while getting the Japanese to curb their exports of automobiles to this country. In the diplomatic process set off by the visit here this week of the Japanese Foreign Minister, Masayoshi Ito, evidence is mounting that Japan will announce in the next six weeks that it will take legal steps to modestly restrain its auto shipments. In Tokyo this program is already known by the acronym VER, for Voluntary Export Restraints. But no matter what the euphemism, there will be fewer of the popular, fuel-efficient Japanese cars arriving in this country, and probably there will be higher prices and fewer choices for American consumers.